Google could soon be introducing a new feature to Gmail called Shielded Mail. It is assumed to be a temporary email generator, which lets users make throwaway email addresses to sign up for things without getting their actual email spammed.
The feature was spotted by Android Authority, which did a teardown of the APK of the latest release of Google Play Services. During the teardown, the publication found a string of text for a new feature called Shielded Email. Later on, they actually found the feature in the Autofill settings, but it seems that the feature is still not functional as it has not been officially rolled out by the tech giant yet.
As was initially assumed, the feature does offer generated email addresses, but it is still unclear when it will be released. It is also unknown if it will be deeply integrated into Google’s ecosystem, such as Apple’s Hide My Email feature that lets you generate a temporary email when you sign into a website using “Sign in with Apple”.
Android Authority infers that, like Apple’s implementation, Shielded Email will offer the ability to forward emails sent to your temporary addresses to your real one. Of course, other temporary email generators exist, like the one launched by AdGuard. However, this type of generator does not support email forwarding.
(Source: Android Authority)
